In the rapid development of China, many street communities and neighboring parks are taken by high buildings gradually. We, as the designers for updating urban scenery, combine interaction, popular science, wetland prospect and co-establishing farm together to build a wholly open corner park, returning the urban green space to local residents and children, making they own a more interesting, more professional children nature school, metamorphosing the disused corner park into an urban reception room.
Fragrant Hill Insight Park is located in the border of Gem Road and Jinguo Avenue, Yubei District, Chongqing, China, and lies in the center area of this district where crowd assembling and scattering, with run-down surrounding public infrastructure. The plot was an urban corner park, and had a not very clean stream, small wetland and huge banyan, which looked shabby on the whole. But in the evening and weekend, the surrounding dwellers still would bring children to here, who assembled in crowds or queues to catching, playing, chatting or climbing.
We have built four theme parks that integrate teaching and entertainment and they’re around the site, pond and banyan tree.
Theme classes of plant, combined with multiple ecological experiences and outdoor popular science, teaching with pleasure, can lead children to study by plant corresponding to signboard, and also can know the corresponding plant by scanning QR code. Theme classes of wetland exhibit popular science plants of a natural wetland, aquatic plants and aquatic aerator interacting, recognizing the significance of wetland to the urban climate.
According to the site’s topography, theme playground of Dongdongma offers large public theme activity space, interacting water, swing, trampoline etc. for surrounding citizen’s baby. The theme of co-establishing farm, based on the family unit, forms community circles, by sowing, maintaining and harvesting, communicating in learning. The small theater can provide a venue for evening party and farm community meeting.
The design includes access for all with accessible handrails, parking place for persons in wheelchairs, benches, parking place for pram, litter bins, spots for collecting water and stakes for tying dog, and also vending machines, charging points, lighting for nighttime users and so on.
The essence of city updating is lifestyle’s “updating” of people living in, thus, it is about the memory of every unique individual to the city, to make every individual’s life and work more enjoyable.
Fragrant Hill Insight Park
Location: Chongqing, China
Project Credit: Shenzhen IN Lab Design & Consultancy Co., Ltd.
Photography credit: Holi Landscape Photography
